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As much as I adore cooking on the stove—with spices and fire and patience—you’ll also catch me flipping on my air fryer at least three times a week. It’s fast, and it makes food crunchy. And by golly, I love texture. While I might be completely, embarrassingly behind the curve on this one, I just started air frying kielbasa and achieved truly stellar, crisp-edged results. All you have to do is make sure you score it right.
I have fond memories of snacking on kid-sized kielbasa rounds at my neighbor’s house growing up. They must have loved it too because it seemed to always end up on the table. Lately, I can only manage a few slices because I get adult-sized heartburn and kielbasa can be too greasy. While the richness can be a treat, I got tired of it fast. But as soon as I threw it in the air fryer, everything changed.
Kielbasa, like most sausages, is a seasoned meat mixture that’s encased. The casing gives the sausage shape and also holds in the fats and juices when it’s heated. Keeping this casing intact will preserve that juiciness and you’ll have a plump kielbasa. My method is to methodically slice openings into the casing to release some of this fat and in doing so, create multiple crispy edges. Anyone who loves how juicy kielbasa is will probably not like this method much. But if you love a bit of texture, come along.
Scoring kielbasa “right” is really just scoring it a lot and in a regular fashion so it crisps evenly. This increased surface area will be exposed to the high-velocity winds of the air fryer’s convection heating system, rendering excess fat out of the meat, and rewarding you with beautifully browned and crunchy edges. Make no mistake, the interior of the kielbasa will still be plenty juicy and flavorful, you’ll just get a gloriously craggly crust on the outside too.
How to make air-fried kielbasa
I tried two different scoring techniques: spiral-cut, and an x-cut. Kielbasa is already cooked, so scoring it in any fashion is easy and you don’t have to be worried about raw meat. To spiral cut it, use a sharp paring knife to slash a diagonal line all the way down the length of the kielbasa. Only cut about a quarter-inch in, you don’t want to slice through it completely. This first cut should have about an inch, to an inch and a half-width between the next parallel line on the sausage. Once you’ve completed that line, repeat with another spiral down the length of the kielbasa, in the same direction, next to the first cut.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
To x-cut your kielbasa (my favorite one), use a sharp paring knife and cut a series of x-shapes next to each other in a straight line down one side. Only go about a quarter-inch deep. You’ll do this three times. Turn the sausage a third of the way over. Repeat with another series of x-cuts. Turn the sausage one more time and repeat the same series of cuts. The kielbasa will have a sort of argyle pattern on its surface.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Put the scored kielbasa into the air fryer basket and set it to the “air fry” setting at 400°F for 10 to 12 minutes. I used my Ninja DoubleStack for this batch and they came out perfect, but if you’ve noticed that your air fryer browns quicker than others, check on it sooner. My Instant Vortex browns a bit faster, so I’d check on that after eight minutes or so. Flip the sausage halfway through the cooking time. The kielbasa should be separating at the slice marks, browning on the edges and sizzling all over.
Since kielbasa is basically a giant hot dog, I figured the popular spiral-cut would be a sure winner, but I preferred the x-cut pattern in the end. I’d say spiral-cutting the sausage leaves you with a good middle ground between un-scored kielbasa, and the crispy, crunchy bark on the x-cut version. Rest assured, there’s no wrong choice here.
